It’ll take some time for the Rodman/Jong Un crap to simmer down. Yes, he apologized for his drunken outburst on international TV. Yes, the family of Kenneth Bae accepted his apology.

This is a screenshot of my “North Korea” feed on Google News. It can’t detect useful sources like Daily NK, NK News, Chosun Ilbo or Kyodo News. It can pick up the Irish Independent, however, as well as the Globe and Mail (technically out of the US). Let’s see, in this selection alone there are… ten stories about Dennis Rodman, one about Pacman and Peso (rap duo who shot a video in North Korea), and one about Matt Cooper… oops, no, that one’s still about Rodman. Dammit.

So what else have we got? In other news, North Korea has stymied South Korea’s suggestion for family reunions, for the time being; citizens are preparing fertilizer for the upcoming planting season; encouraged by Rodman, Japanese lawmaker Antonio Inoki plans to open a Sports Peace Community Association office in Pyongyang, per his agreement with the late Jang Song Taek… anything else?

Oh yeah. One news item about the aunt of Kim Jong Un, the widow of Jang Song Taek, and the last living child of the founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung. It seems that Kim Kyong Hui did not travel to Singapore for heart complications at all. The last, best news report is that she was flown to Paris to undergo operation upon her brain tumor. The rumors of her suicide were rumors, after all, but the gossip about her death may not be far from the truth in the near future. Having succumbed to depression and alcoholism spurred by the suicide of her daughter, Kum Song, in Paris in 2006, and further exacerbated by the execution of her husband, the 67-year-old woman is doing very poorly, now weighing only 77 pounds. According to unnamed KWP cadre, she has difficulty recognizing anyone around her. The end can’t be long now.